Dark Lover

by J.R. Ward

With a Roar and a Kiss, It Began

What I Read...

He is the last of his kind, the only full blood vampire left alive on the planet, and he is the
leader of a small brotherhood of warriors who protect his threatened race from extinction at the
hands of an unholy and de-souled army of lessers. He is Wrath, the biggest, baddest
mother you never want to meet in a dark alley. He is the Blind King, but he is a king who
refuses to rule.

Beth is a half-vampire, half-human female on the cusp of a transition into a creature she
doesn't know exists. An orphan who was raised in foster homes, she is unprepared for the dark
abyss of truth that will open its gaping maw at her feet and threaten to devour her. Only Wrath
can save her, only Wrath can teach her of her people...only Wrath can love her.

Because he says so.

What I Thought...

It is the book that spawned a popularity surge in a literary subgenre, that created a firestorm
of fans and spun a thousand writers into similar directions. Long before Kindle, before I became
a mindless, book-consuming beast, I picked up a red book in a dark bookstore with a racy title
and fell into a world I had only heard rumblings of before. And I was lost.

It wasn't the vampires or other paranormal aspects - read them before. It wasn't the romance -
come on, I live for romance and always have. It was the unique and utterly satisfying blend of
paranormal romance and urban fantasy. It was the brothers themselves; those damned and damaged
warriors each bearing the weight of their own personal crosses with honor and death and sex and
booze and pulse-searing rap. It was the brilliant world and the complex, layered plots, too, but
mostly it was the intensity of the emotions that each brother garnered just by being.

And it all started with Dark Lover.

I'm not going to sit here and attempt to write what I consider a typical review. I'm not going
to go on and on about what the story was about, what worked, what didn't. I'm not going to hash
out plot points or discuss story arcs. It's been done by people far more capable than I. All I'm
going to say is that for me, Dark Lover is one of those books that transcends reading
entertainment and becomes something tangible, something that makes willing suspension of
disbelief seem nothing more than a trite catchphrase because there is no disbelief.

It started with this book and regardless of where the series has gone since, regardless of
where it has yet to go, this book is the one book that I'll never criticize or critique. I'm
just so glad I read it all those years ago, and am happy to have read it again.

It changed...everything.

...and You?

Do you have any thoughts, feelings, and/or questions about this review?This is your chance to express yourself.
I would love to hear from you!

What Other Readers Said...

I loved this book and it got me reading the rest of the series...to a point. Now I
have to go comment on Rhage!

Tracy replied...

Oooh...do tell! When did you stop reading? I'm re-reading the whole series to try to
motivate myself to continue onto Lover Mine, which has been in my TBR folder on Kindle for months without
so much as a flicker of interest on my end.

I've finished Z's book and will be reviewing that soon, but
love to hear what others think of the series and the direction it's taken and what point it went a little
cockeyed for them.